The 5 Best And Essential Apps For Remote Workers

Working remotely often means you have to be on your game when it comes to accountability. It is hard to manage your time and other essential tasks when you are working alone. You don’t have a team there with you to help organize the workflow and make sure that things are getting done on time and accurately.

That’s why apps and software are so important. It is like having the team that works for you to help you stay organized, efficient and accountable.

This is true no matter what kind of remote worker you are. If you are an employee working from home or do freelance work, you need to have software to be able to work effectively.

In this article, I will go over some of the best apps you can use to get more work done in less time when remote working.

1 – Clicktime

One of the biggest bugaboos of working remotely is tracking your time. Not only to make sure you get paid for the work that you do but so you can see how productive you are while you are working.

Clicktime is a timesheet app that has a lot of features that make it easy to see how you’re working.

With the app, you can log your time across many different tasks, submit your timesheet for review and to get paid and organize your workflow.

In addition to all of that, you can track expenses and submit them to your client or boss all from the same app on your phone. Receipts can be added using the camera function to create a snapshot for easy organization.

Use the data from the app to see how you’re working and you will surely identify areas where there is a bottleneck or you are doing repetitive exercises that waste time.

2 – G Suite

This app is more like a suite of different apps, hence the name.

It used to be called Google Apps.

It has several different systems that resemble Microsoft Works like spreadsheets, word processing, and slideshows which can be shared among team members through a virtual, cloud-based drive called Google Drive.

Members can easily share documents that can be edited together in real-time. Sharing is a cinch when people are sharing folders on Google Drive.

It doesn’t stop there, however.

Gmail offers up some pretty amazing email features that even allows for messaging among team members and coordination with Google Calendar.

It puts everything in one place to allow for ease of sharing, using and connectivity to keep your productivity high.

3 – Docusign

When working remotely, it is difficult, time-consuming and costly to try to physically sign important documents.

Previously, if you needed to sign a document remotely, it meant having a physical copy sent to you by courier, then signed and sent back.

Nowadays, we can use technology to securely sign a document digitally and it is just as safe and recognized as official as a regular signature. One of the best apps to do this is Docusign.

It integrates easily with other apps like Salesforce to make things more streamlined and efficient.

In addition to the fact that it is easy, it also allows for simple, yet secure storage and sharing for a trustworthy process from start to finish.

4 – Slack

When it comes to team messaging, few apps work better than Slack.

You can have your entire remote team communicate quickly and effectively all in one place.

Different channels allow for more direct and private communication and avoid people who don’t need to be in the loop to waste time checking messages that don’t pertain to them.

Slack is primarily a communications platform and isn’t meant to be a project management app. Though it does offer some integration with third-party apps like Google Drive and Trello to help stay organized.

5 – NordVPN

It would be wonderful if the internet worked the same no matter what country you find yourself in.

Unfortunately, different countries have different restrictions.

Either through censorship or licensing agreements, what you see can be much different than your colleagues in other countries.

You’ll need to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to bypass a lot of these restrictions.

With an app like NordVPN, it is very easy to make sure you’re able to access every website and other apps necessary to do your job effectively.

Even if you are not abroad, having a VPN is essential if you use mobile hotspots or unsecured wifi networks in public areas like a coffee shop.